The Cyberdeck for a Card-Carrying Nerd

On the inside, most cyberdecks are pretty similar. More often than not, you will find a hobbyist-friendly single-board computer like a Raspberry Pi and a small LCD display. A few other odds and ends will round out the build, but most of the appeal comes from the external appearance of the system. That’s right, in the world of cyberdecks, it’s what’s on the outside that counts.

It was love at first sight when Matthew Dockrey first saw a VTech Little Talking Scholar toy from 1989. Originally sold as a very basic matching game for young children, it may not seem that interesting to an adult today. But Dockrey knew that its laptop-inspired style would be the ideal platform for a really slick little cyberdeck. Well, it would be if the hardware would fit in the case, anyway.

With just 11 buttons, and very little free space inside of the case, the build was not exactly easy. But by choosing the right components, there was just enough clearance to fit everything inside. Dockrey picked up a Pimoroni HyperPixel 4.0-inch square touchscreen that fit just right in the square-shaped space available. Or at least it did after 3D printing a bezel to mount it in. This was paired with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W to offer up some nice computing performance without taking up much space.

Another interesting thing about the Little Talking Scholar is that games were selected by inserting punch cards into it. Dockrey kept this feature so that custom punch cards could be inserted to select the app that the cyberdeck should load. Inserting one punch card loaded a local weather app, while another loaded an ebook reader. It is also possible to browse Wikipedia or play solitaire by loading the right punch card.

Nine apps in total were developed (up to 64 are possible with the 6-bit punch card system). Perhaps the most unlikely app created was a simple text editor. With just a few buttons, data entry is not exactly easy. But Dockrey came up with a way to enter text via Morse code. The dots and dashes may give you flashbacks to texting with phones of the early 2000s, but hey, it works! Or at least it works if you are familiar with Morse code (for the uninitiated, there is an option to display the codes).

The limitations of the Little Talking Scholar interface, even with the updated display, heavily restrict what you can do with the cyberdeck. But Dockrey considers that to be a feature, not a bug. Considering how much time we waste scrolling through garbage on our phones, Dockrey believes that a minimal interface like this, with slow switching between apps, could actually be a good way to stay focused. It may never become your daily driver, but it is a very cool little system all the same.